The Yorkshire woman on a mission to champion heritage in the North

She will responsibility for developing strategic partnerships and delivering the Heritage Fund's mission for enhancing public engagement and investment across the North.

"The opportunity of being able to work across the North was really appealing to me,” says Featherstone of her new opportunity. “I’m really passionate about the North and it means so much to me on a personal level.”

Featherstone’s parents are from York but she was born in Southampton after the family moved there for work reasons. They returned North when she was four and initially lived near Darlington before moving to Sheffield when she was seven.

She still calls the Steel City home and when she became the first person from her family to go to university, she opted to attend Sheffield Hallam.

Initially Helen began a Fine Art degree but after getting an internship at the Live Arts Trust where she helped with funding applications, she began to realise her talents may lie in a different direction.

"I started thinking there is the whole other creative world out there,” she recalls.

She switched her degree to History of Art and then stayed on at Hallam to study a Masters in Cultural Policy and Management.

After initially working for local theatre and dance companies in Sheffield on a freelance basis, she landed a job as a youth audience development worker at The Gate Theatre in Goole and after a spell in Batley, was hired by Kirklees Council as an arts development officer.

In 2009, she joined Arts Council England and rose through the ranks to become an engagement and audiences manager.

Featherstone says her time there was both fascinating and hugely educational. "All my work was around connecting people to culture and to heritage. I did a lot of place-based creative work.”

She says projects in the North were particularly rewarding. "I love the North and it is so rich and diverse. When I think of the North, heritage just springs to mind.”

In 2017, Featherstone was appointed as the chief executive of the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, which included Kelham Island Museum and Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet in its remit.

She says in addition to the privilege of being able to work in her home city, the attractions had a broad appeal especially to a male audience which is often harder for cultural attractions to reach.

She says one particularly memorable traditional brickmaking workshop at the Industrial Hamlet involved local young people and refugees.

"The refugees actually knew how to do it and it was just this kind of amazing exchange. There were beaming faces as they showed off this skill they had.”

Featherstone says her time there also provided a reminder of what a difference culture and heritage can make to the perception of a local area.

In 2018, Kelham Island was named as the best neighbourhood in the country in the Urbanism Awards.

Judges recognised the efforts to retain the area’s post-industrial heritage – with the museum at its heart – combined with ongoing regeneration work to give it an exciting new future.

"There were a group of residents who were really brilliant at creating this local community. I worked with them and we talked with a lot of local developers and the council and really made sure the heritage of the place was always at the heart of conversations about what would come next for the area.

"Kelham Island has a really strong sense of place and winning the award was so nice because a big case was made around the heritage-led regeneration.”

Featherstone’s next challenge was at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

She says it was during the Covid lockdowns that it became quickly apparent how much the park meant to people across the region.

"When we started coming out of the first lockdown, the Government said parks could reopen but we didn’t fit the criteria. There were people trying to get into the site even though we were closed.

"I worked with colleagues at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to have some legislation which enabled the outdoor areas of sculpture parks to remain open.

"We began to understand how deep people’s connection was to the park. During that time, art galleries were still closed and we were one of the only places you could come and see art.

"For a lot of people, that had deep meaning and resonance and we had this outpouring of support. So many people said this is the first public place they had come to since lockdown.”

Featherstone says she will be sorry to leave YSP but her new role overseeing the spending of millions of pounds on worthy organisations, projects and initiatives across Northern England is one she couldn’t turn down.

“The North has so many rich cultural and heritage assets, and such a diverse cultural heritage, all of which makes up the North’s strong identity.

"It’s a really exciting and an absolute joy that in my new role, I will play a role in continuing to work with people from the North to celebrate this heritage, identity, and sense of place that really does make such a difference to people’s lives.

"Our heritage is the reason why many of us choose to live, work and spend our leisure time here.”